M897 Artist Spotlight: June 2013

JOE HERTLER & THE RAINBOW SEEKERS

An Playful and Dedicated Band from Lansing/Mt. Pleasant

Story by LCC Radio Staff Reporter Karen Hopper

Sometimes,
Joe Hertler just wants to jam. The worst fight he ever had with his
band--that would be “the Rainbow Seekers” part of Joe Hertler and
the Rainbow Seekers--was over the midsection of a song. Hertler
wanted to put in a jam session, but his bandmates told him it was
stupid. They refused.

"I punched the ceiling," he says sheepishly.

Did he punch a hole in the ceiling? "No." Did he dent the ceiling?
The very idea of it is embarrassingly inaccurate. "No," he grins.
Nobody takes Joe’s anger seriously, least of all Joe.

Being taken seriously is a bit of a problem for Joe Hertler and the
Rainbow Seekers. In stark contrast to Hertler’s sometimes heavy
material, the onstage persona of Hertler and the Rainbow Seekers, is
irreverent, fun, social.

Hertler will tell anyone who interviews him: people come to shows
for the music, and for the other people. He instructs his audiences
to talk to each other, shake hands, introduce themselves. There are
Hawaiian print shirts on stage. One guy sometimes wears a fur coat.
Hertler encourages singalongs and nonsensical humming. You get the
impression that Hertler doesn’t know how to take himself too
seriously.

And
that’s a bit of a problem, Hertler confesses. Back in the day--five,
six years ago--when he was just a lone guy with an acoustic guitar,
singing his songs, he wanted very much to be taken seriously by the
heavyweights of the Michigan music scene. He worries, a little,
about his image; does his general lightheartedness and ever-present
smile make him seem shallow, or like he isn’t dedicated?

Because he is, in fact, dedicated. He’s loved music his whole life.
He was rejected from the music program at Central Michigan, but that
didn't stop him. He kept writing songs, he kept practicing.
Eventually, the Rainbow Seekers came along. He loves all sorts of
music, and while the songs that come out of him are more along the
folk-rock spectrum, he listens to and plays house and techno for
fun.

He quotes Malcom Gladwell and Anders Ericsson when explaining why he
probably won’t release his own techno music: he doesn’t have 10,000
hours of time in techno, and he does have it, or nearly, in “indie
soul with folk roots.”

It’s
a growing phase, right now, for Joe Hertler and the Rainbow Seekers.
I asked Hertler if there was a plan in place to transition the band
from local gem--they book shows regularly and are appearing at
Common Ground again this summer--into national music stars, and he
hesitates. He’s not sure how much touring he wants to do. He loves
his band (he writes them thank-you notes full of drawings and inside
jokes) and doesn’t want to face the the downside of constant
togetherness, which nonstop touring requires. There’s also the
“studio band” approach, where they would release more music but play
fewer shows. But nothing has been decided yet.

Hertler
knows this much: he wants his band to be on salary, to be able to do
nothing but play music, and ideally, he’d like to be able to support
a family. Not that he has a family yet, he hastens to add. But it’s
on his mind; the messy, practical side of being a rising musician;
one with student loans and family relationships. He sees clearly a
role for every member of the band. Everybody contributes something
essential.

For somebody so playful, Hertler is at heart, deeply committed. To
music. Sorry, ladies, but he might need a little time before he’s
actually ready to start that family. In the meantime, you can buy
the next Joe Hertler and the Rainbow Seekers album using bitcoin.